Saturday, September 21, 2013

An Enterprise Architecture is blueprint of Enterprise; whereas an EA framework is
blueprint of Enterprise Architecture. Any framework is guideline to develop architecture.
With speed of change is accelerated, especially at today’s agile environment, how
to select the proper framework or combination of framework in order to run an
effective EA program for managing changes and enforce governance as well?

1. The Characteristics of Popular EA Frameworks

A framework can provide a common starting point and
structure that everybody understands. There are a few well-known EA
frameworks with different strength and focal point, also with their own
limitation, they also need to be continuously updated in order to adapt to the
evolutionary business and technology dynamics, such as:

Zachman provides you with matrix and
taxonomyto talk about Enterprise - in
terms of who/what/where/when/how (at very high level). It provides a
taxonomy depicting many aspects of an Enterprise Architecture (EA). It
will allow you to organize the aspects, elements and relationships in a
structured manner.

TOGAF is more of a comprehensive
process for designing or creating an EA, by first dividing it into
four fundamental areas of concern (business, application, data, technology).
And steps down the middle and describes what is necessary to describe an
EA, TOGAF is at lower level of abstraction, it gives you process (along
with lot of documentation/templates) for IT Architecture.

There are more than one hundred EA
frameworks around; these methodologies are quite different from each
other, both in goals and in approach. So EA Frameworks...

* have different evolutions

* serve different Purposes

* are different in Scope

* are based on different Principles

* have different Structures

* are supported by different approaches

2. The Criteria to Select the Right Framework

The industry study found that 66% of organizations had
developed a customized framework, with one-third of respondents making use of
two or more frameworks. There are a number of different approaches to
enterprise architecture, and several frameworks have been developed to guide
the process.

The selection of which framework or combination of
frameworks to use is dependent on many factors including the purpose behind
developing the EA, the type of organization you are dealing with, etc. Very
often you find that you need to use a combination of different frameworks as
each has its own strengths and weaknesses. The key thing to ask is what you
expect to get out of the EA effort and then go from there.

This is why the first
step in any EA effort is to agree on a charter for the EA effort that has buy
in from all of the stakeholders. You will also find that different
frameworks seem to have more of following in one industry or another. This
may be because the purpose for which an EA effort is undertaken may differ from
one industry to the next or one type of organization to the next. The series of
questions should be clarified such as: What is the context in which you are
seeking to apply the EA disciplines? What are your objectives /
goals? Who are you working with? What skills and capabilities exist
within your team? What kind of “culture” do organizations have?

“Less is More”: You may select
practices/work products from different EA frameworks and methods and choose to
tailor a framework and method suitable to the context in hand and fit for the
needs of your enterprise stakeholders. This usually means "less is more" -- in the minds of
those who need to rely on different EA views to make their particular,
strategic decisions. These EA views, at some (often high) level of abstraction,
should be fundamental components of your EA endeavor.

Create a hybrid
framework which is fit best for your organization. Pick and pull the best
from various frameworks to leverage the pieces that make sense to use your team's
experience/expertise on the problem domain to develop the architecture, customize
and combine the frameworks for your domain and develop the principles for your
practices.

Summary: It really
depends on the context. There are a few logical steps in assessing EA
frameworks: 1)The first important step is to identify issues that need to be
solved by the EA program/exercise. 2) The second step is to choose a framework
that can serve a starting point, tailor it to ensure that the original issues
are addressed, and implement the framework. 3) Sometimes, tailoring an EA
framework may mean merging it with another framework, including another
paradigm, etc. In any case, factors that influence your decision; that is the
choice of an EA framework, include technology, management structures,
governance, culture, education and skills of the participants.

Framework is methodology and tool, to ask which framework is
best, just like pondering: 'what tool would you prefer and why, hammer, saw,
screwdriver? It’s situational, and depend on ‘what do you want them to do’, the
right set of tools and hybrid solutions can indeed help improve business
effectiveness & efficiency,to adapt
to rapidly changes, but, still, people are the masters of any tools including EA framework.